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Children's understanding of mental illness : an exploratory study
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Fox, Claudine, Buchanan-Barrow, E. and Barrett, M. (2008) Children's understanding of mental illness : an exploratory study. Child: Care, Health and Development, Volume 34 (Number 1). pp. 10-18. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2214.2007.00783.x ISSN 0305-1862.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2214.2007.00783.x
Abstract
Background This study aimed to investigate children's thinking about mental illness by employing a well-established framework of adult illness understanding.
Methods The study adopted a semistructured interview technique and a card selection task to assess children's responses to causes, consequences, timeline and curability of the different types of mental illness. The children were aged between 5 and 11 years.
Results Results indicated a developmental trend in the children's thinking about mental illness; there was an increase in the children's understanding of the causes, consequences, curability and timeline of mental illness with age. The older children demonstrated a more sophisticated and accurate thinking about mental illness compared with the younger children, who tended to rely on a medical model in order to comprehend novel mental illnesses. Furthermore, the girls exhibited more compassion, showing greater social acceptance compared with the boys.
Conclusions The Leventhal model provides a useful framework within which to investigate children's knowledge and understanding of mental illness. Limitations of the study and implications for future research are discussed.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||
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Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Psychology | ||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Child: Care, Health and Development | ||||
Publisher: | Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd. | ||||
ISSN: | 0305-1862 | ||||
Official Date: | January 2008 | ||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | Volume 34 | ||||
Number: | Number 1 | ||||
Page Range: | pp. 10-18 | ||||
DOI: | 10.1111/j.1365-2214.2007.00783.x | ||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access |
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